Bi-Annual Rules Congress for DCA

[Jeff Ream]

I know that the urge is to jump all over what's wrong with the rules. But, we may have missed the most important part of the DCA announcement.

As a part of the Rules Congress, DCA is being proactive in creating seminars to help corps' get off the ground on solid footing.

Kudos to the administration for getting this started!

i do agree that is huge. and maybe in time stuff for show sponsors as well

[Jeff Ream]

in your opinion of course. in most members' and fans' that move would ruin drum corps and be a total loss for the activity and kill it completely. not really a smart move.

shh dont use logic with Mike

[JohnZ]

For the pit, yes.

As for the money issue, I think the money spent on amps and mics would be made up on the money NOT being spent replacing mallets and keyboards that are being played way harder than they were made to be played.

someone with more pit knowledge please help me out on this one:

I would see the cost of replacing mallets as being a normal course of 'business' for a variety of reasons, and inconsequential to the the comparison cost of amp equipment. And the only repairs or replacements of keyboards I have ever been involved with in my 30 years of this activity has been the result of normal wear, accidental damage or the frequency of moving or transporting this equipment. I think I've seen one split key that might have been because of hard playing, but it was replaced by the manufacturer at no cost.

is this really a big issue that amps will eliminate?

[corpsjazz]

I can comment on this only by saying how I lost interest in competing and why I don't buy tickets any more.

I made the decision to go senior when DCI began to emerge. I was not in a particularly good corps. At times we were pitiful.

One thing has always stood out in my minds' eye. We played and performed music for the crowd...not the judges. Listen to some of the corps from the late 60's and early 70's .... the crowd often sounds like they are at a hockey game...screaming and cheering for their team.

Our corps was able to get the crowd out of their seats at least twice during any good performance. Our favorite placement at retreat was when we lost the show but the crowd had us in first place. If we got them out of their seats half way through the show, once at the ending plus during the passing in review, it was a win for us.

In the early to mid 70's the DCI effect rambled over to the seniors. Our corps was like the rest....weak instructors and designers played the judging game - as if egos are related to scores. We had to play music that the system would reward. We went from crowd pleasing to judge pleasing. We started to hear shouts of "boring" from those who knew what we had been. It sucked...but our scores went up because drum corps had become figure skating...it was becoming inaccessible to the masses.

As other corps became more boring, so did we. There were valiant efforts to reconstruct what the corps had been, with some modicum of success, but by then the downward spiral was in full force, for both the corps and the activity. As all corps became figure skaters crowds withered and died. Corps withered and died.

It is amazing that a random panel of citizens are intelligent enough to judge a murder trial but not smart enough to know what entertains them. Why not have the local radio station empanel 6 jurors at each show to judge the corps? Let them hand out up to 5 points per corps on any criteria they select...so long as they know they are out to choose the winner. Let the crowd know the judges scores and then, the final placements after adding in jury scores. Add some drama and controversy to retreat.

If the jury pulls a "homer" who cares? If it was close, the home crowd will leave happy and will want to come back next year. If the jury pulls a real stinker, the crowd will let them know. Either way, it is drama, the type that gets people talking and buying tickets.

Eliminate on field warm ups and reduce props. Both are time consuming, wasteful and distracting. Get on the field and get it done. When the public buys a ticket to any other type of paid performance they do not expect to have to watch the warm up and be put through the annoyance of watching the performers unload and load their props. Get to the entertainment...fast.

Rule changes should be about putting bums in the seats. Force show designers to pander to the public and budget restraint...not the Russian and French judges.

I was at Edinburgh this past year on a cruise. I did not go the tatoo, but those who did were absolutely thrilled by it all. It was simple, light on props, no warm ups, and accessible. It will run forever to sold out crowds. Will this activity?

[audiodb]

i think for some smaller corps they could actually be quite helpful for their pits of 1, 2 or 3 people.

Not one of DCA's 24 corps fielded a pit that small in 2008.

[LegalEagle50]

i wouldn't know. i missed everything Saturday due to our corps' schedule.

[Sayre Kulp]

Not one of DCA's 24 corps fielded a pit that small in 2008.

I seem to recall a few of the smaller Class A Corps with 5 or less. Not many, but I'm pretty sure there were one or two. (Just sayin'...)

[audiodb]

Yes, there were several with pits of four or five players.

[LegalEagle50]

well then, frankly, you got the idea of what it was i was trying to say. sorry i didn't have exact numbers and names of who had the tiny pits.

[MikeD]

Rule changes should be about putting bums in the seats. Force show designers to pander to the public and budget restraint...not the Russian and French judges.

There are already enough bums in the seats...they need more people with money!

j/k, of course.